Optimising Fashion & Luxury Omnichannel Retail Planning with the latest tech | Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) – Partner at KIVALUE
A common recommendation for fashion retailers is to be more proactive, less reactive, especially in areas of assortment and collection planning. And I don’t argue with that. That said, there is one area where, in my opinion, it pays off to be reactive as well. That area is stock allocation for in-season inventory management. The reason why I recommend this is that any prediction is a guess. While we can – and should – make our predictions for stock allocation more accurate, at some point we reach the limits of what predictive models can do for us. And at the same time, we need to be able to react to shifts in demand across stores to maximise our revenue from sales. I believe that the right solution is tracking in-store stock and making frequent decisions about stock allocation, while balancing shipping costs, pricing strategy and risks of committing too much stock to a specific store location. The key here is staying flexible and reacting quickly to changes in demand across stores, making sure that every store has the right combination of products in the right combination of sizes, at the right price. #InSeasonStockAllocation #AssortmentPlanning #Consulting #FashionRetail
Hey Giorgio! Spot on with the need for reactivity in stock allocation. Have you ever considered how pop-up events or local festivals might impact store demands? It's like playing chess where every move counts and sometimes reacting to your opponent's unexpected move can win you the game. Would love to hear more about any unique strategies you've seen work well!
Fashion Retail Acceleration
2wAgreed. The old approach of setting store optimums and size curves each season and then undoing in season based on subjective reactions is no longer acceptable. We need solutions that are dynamically responding to current trade weekly.